(JTA) — British Labor Party leader Ed Miliband called for “a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism” in the United Kingdom.
Miliband, the son of Holocaust refugees, in a Facebook post cited figures from the Jewish Community Security Trust indicating a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents.
He praised Britain’s tradition of tolerance, but warned that “the recent spate of incidents should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who thought the scourge of anti-Semitism had been defeated and that the idea of Jewish families fearful of living here in Britain was unthinkable.”
Miliband cited in particular the experiences of Labor lawmakers Louise Ellman and Luciana Berger, who were targeted recently by anti-Semitic tweets, and he pointed to the summer’s Gaza conflict as an inflection point that triggered a spike in anti-Semitic incidents.
The Labor chief called on Facebook and other social media sites to monitor users for bigoted attacks.
He concluded his post by declaring, “A zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms here in Britain will go hand-in-hand with the pursuit of peace in the Middle East as a key focus of the next Labor government’s foreign policy.”
